I got a call from a loss mitigator yesterday. Did I just get punk’d by Ashton Kutcher?

When I saw the red hold button blinking on my phone, and my office manager IM’d me that this particular mitigator was on hold, my body reacted as if someone needed immediate medical attention. “Drop everything!! Get a doctor!! Code Blue!!”

You always HOPE that the bank will call you back. They rarely do, but despite the fact you still hold on to that tiny shred of hope, that morsel of divine intervention.

This was a 2nd lienholder. We were waiting on approval from them, to take $1500 on a $20k payoff. We already had approval from the 1st, and the funding close date is 10days away.

So as I stared at the hold button, I hesitated to release it. As I have a tendency to do sometimes, my mind raced to the worst case scenarios…

The mitigator was calling to say they wanted full payoff and wouldn’t settle for less.

They were calling to say they knew about the simultaneous closing and no dice, they’ll take the house to auction.

They needed 600 more days to review the file.

They had to do another BPO.

He was leaving the company and another mitigator was taking over the file.

The FDIC just raided them and were being absorbed by Bank of America.

The loan was bundled in a CDO and they couldn’t find the note.

I picked up the phone. His name was Mark. He said he was calling to say he was writing up his review for submission, and his opinion to the investor was to approve the deal. He’d have an answer for my by Monday or Tuesday. I thanked him and hung up the phone.

I took myself off the oxygen tanks and breathed a sigh of relief. And then something happened. I felt really special. Heck, I should feel special. Nobody else gets a return phone call from loss mitigation.